


Sparks for the Moment

by LycoRogue



Category: Seven Kingdoms Trilogy - Kristin Cashore
Genre: Bitterblue (book), Chapter 39, Chapter Related, F/M, Fluff and Smut, Graceling Realm series - Freeform, Sapphire - Freeform, Smut, Sparks, between pages 471 and 472, drawbridge tower, what happened in that fade to black
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-05
Updated: 2019-07-05
Packaged: 2020-06-16 07:37:05
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19642879
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LycoRogue/pseuds/LycoRogue
Summary: As Queen Bitterblue kissed Saf, he realized he had one more chance. Possibly one last chance to be with his Sparks. With the snow storm raging outside, no one would disturb them within that drawbridge tower anyway.(My smutty vision of what happened after the line: "Yes," she whispered. "Are you?")





	Sparks for the Moment

**Author's Note:**

> I am so massively late to this fandom, I know. I only just recently heard about this trilogy, and I still need to read through "Fire," but after reading chapter 39 in "Bitterblue" I could not think of anything besides their night together.
> 
> This is the third piece of smut I've ever written, but the first one I'm publishing publicly. I also oddly wrote from Saf's POV even though I'm cisfemale... so...???? Finally, this is my first fanfic for the Graceling Realm series (Seven Kingdoms Trilogy), so I'm really hoping I'm writing these two correctly....
> 
> *nervously bites nails*

Saf stirred to Bitterblue's whimper. Eyes half-closed, he watched her twitch in his arms, her own eyes pressed tight and her eyebrows knitted together in a pain that struck him hard. He pulled her closer into his chest and wrapped his arms around her shoulders. Stroking her black hair, her braids all but unwound after her long night, he shushed her whimpering.

“You're alright,” he whispered into her ear; his futile attempt to ease her nightmare. “You're safe. I have you. You're not alone.” He kept chanting into her ear, desperately trying to remove her pain, but he knew better. He couldn't remove her pain. He caused a great deal of it. He purposely hurt her the worst way he knew how, and now he'd give anything to be able to take every last ounce of pain from her.

Her twitching became more violent. Saf pinned her against him, but she started punching his chest; trying to get away. He only loosened his grip when she hit him at just the right spot to force wind from his lungs. Determined, he at least kept his arms wrapped around her, but her legs started kicking him too.

Then she screamed out and pushed hard against him. Her legs flailed about as if they were trying to catch something. He wanted to be that something; that anchor for her. He shushed her once more and continued to stroke her hair.

“It's okay. You're fine now. I've got you.”

In an instant, Bitterblue grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled herself as close to him as she could manage. Saf shifted his arms to wrap them tighter around her shoulders. He wanted her as close as possible as well. He pinned her legs down by wrapping them between his own. Her body was so tiny against his, and he wanted to protect something so frail from ever getting hurt again.

Nuzzling his cheek against hers, Saf buried his nose in her hair, and breathed her in. He continued to whisper in her ear.

“You're safe now. You're not alone. I've got you. Everything is going to be alright. We'll all make sure it will be alright for you. I am so sorry I added to the chaos.”

He rubbed her legs with his own in order to lock her into the present. His hands roamed her back, trying his best to soothe her.

“You don't have anything to worry about right now,” he continued, “Don't think about anything unpleasant. I've got you, and you're safe. That's all you need to focus on. You're safe.”

Bitterblue stilled his lips with a kiss. It shocked Saf for but a second before his eyes fluttered shut and he kissed her back. Her need reciprocated, she kissed him again. Longer. Saf's hands migrated back to her hair, and held her head at the perfect angle for him to taste her. Taste the salt that lingered from her tears slipping over her lips. Taste the faint sweetness left over from her last meal. He could even taste her desire to forget everything but that moment.

Her hands, pinched between their chests, awkwardly drifted down towards the hem of his shirt. Bitterblue's kisses became hungrier, and Saf's heart raced as he felt that hunger as well.

“Are you certain you want this?” Saf could barely speak; terrified of the words as they slipped from his mouth. He would shatter if she told him 'no', but she was the queen and could do as she pleased. She was grieving. She was in pain. She couldn't possibly want him, could she? Not truly? However, her hands didn't cease as they started tugging up on his shirt, exploring his bare tanned skin along his waist. “Are you certain that you are certain?”

“Yes,” she whispered back to him, the first word she spoke since she woke up. The first thing she said to him since asking why he wept. “Are you?” In an instant, her hands froze, and Saf recognized the plea in her soft gray eyes. He suspected his held the same. She was just as terrified as him that they were fooling themselves; that they couldn't truly be together. That the other couldn't really want them; broken and hopeless.

Within that moment, though? That moment was theirs. That moment wasn't hopeless. In that moment, she wasn't Bitterblue, queen of Monsea; his queen, at least in part. In that moment, with her hair falling around her face, her clothes disheveled, and those pleading eyes, she was his Sparks. She was the woman who ran across rooftops with him despite being scared of heights, and sat atop the print shop staring at the stars while doing insane calculations in order to read a watch with fifteen fifty-minute hours. She was the woman who could surprise Saf with nearly every movement and word. Even when she wasn't the queen, she still held so much power over him.

Saf wasn't certain he was comfortable that even as Sparks she carried so much weight in their relationship, but he had her, even if it was for one night. That was all that mattered.

When he had found out that she was the queen, Sparks had died. She could never be his, and he could never be hers. She could never leave the castle behind, and travel the world with him when his wanderlust kicked back in. He could never be shackled down as her consort, and he certainly could never be her king. The person he wanted most in the seven kingdoms was ripped from him. But there, hiding in the drawbridge tower together, isolated from everyone by the snow storm, her eyes pleading for him to want her as much as she wanted him, Sparks was alive again.

“Yes,” he whispered back to her. “Yes, I've never been more certain of anything in my life.” It may be just one moment, but he'd make the most of his stolen time. He shifted her to her back and leaned in for another kiss, filled with the longing he had felt the moment he saw her in that first story room.

She held him in place, her lips parting as her tongue clumsily searched for his. The awkwardness made her almost unbearably endearing, and Saf was gentle as he wrapped his tongue around hers. He felt the inside of her mouth with caution, like he was scouting a target to rob. He felt like that was precisely what he was doing: stealing from her. But she was willing. She was giving herself; he wasn't taking her.

Saf's chest warmed as he realized the gift she wanted to present to him. She was the queen, but even to her that didn't matter in that tower. Even to her, she was simply Sparks, and she wanted him to help her forget her pain. She wanted him to help her forget she was queen. She wanted them to allow themselves this time, while they still could.

Her hands never stopped tugging at his shirt, and exploring his skin. Saf's arms roared for him to do the same, so he pulled Sparks's hands off of him so he could untie her dress. The laces loosened; he paused. They stared at each other, and he rested his hand just below her pointed jaw. Using the side of his index finger, he angled her chin up slightly, and he kissed her again. It wasn't as hungry as it was a moment before, but it was deep as he poured as much meaning into it as he could.

 _I want to protect you,_ Saf told her with his kiss. _I feared I could never have you. I was broken knowing we couldn't be together._

He pulled away and rested his forehead against hers.

“Saf?” She whispered with a twinge of fear. It shattered him, so he took her hands and placed them back onto the hem of his shirt. He then helped her pull his shirt over his head.

Her eyes flicked to where his upper arms met his shoulders. She delicately touched the ribbon of patterned markings that circled both arms. All Lienid men had the dye etched onto his upper arms once he neared marrying age. It was an ornament intended for only the eyes of their wives; something beautiful only they would see. Saf had already thrown that purpose out the window. He went shirtless quite frequently. In that moment, however, as Sparks ran her fingers across his skin, Saf felt the true meaning behind the marks, and silently prayed she was pleased by them.

Their eyes met, and he pulled her close, kissing Sparks just behind her ear. Then her jaw. Then her neck. He pulled her loosened dress away from her shoulder so he could kiss that as well. He shifted his weight, and kissed along her collarbone so he could leave light pecks against her other shoulder.

“I want you,” Sparks breathed, barely loud enough for him to hear, but he felt every word.

Smirking, he leaned close to her ear and whispered back. “Same.” Sparks's whole body shuddered, and she pushed him away from her so she could slide her arms out of her dress's sleeves.

Saf shifted behind her to loosen the lacing a bit more as Sparks slid the top of her dress down to her waist. A pink line rolled across Sparks's pale shoulder as she shifted her arms. Saf leaned in, and kissed the scar remaining from when her assailant had driven a dagger through her skin. The panic he felt when he realized she had been stabbed nearly overwhelmed him as he remembered that night.

 _She's safe now,_ he reminded himself. “You're safe now,” he whispered into her shoulder to reassure both of them. His hands roamed her back, his thumbs following her spine down to her hips. Lingering behind her, Saf kissed her neck again, and she held his head there. She tilted her own head to open her neck up further for him, and began to softly pant.

“Saf.”

Hearing his name sighed in her voice made his breath hitch. His kisses became more aggressive against her neck, hoping to make her sigh his name again. Slinking around her, he knelt before her and kissed down her chest. It heaved under his lips, and his hands rested under each breast to hold it still.

“Sapphire,” Sparks moaned, and her fingers laced themselves through his shaggy dirty-blonde hair. She then squeaked as Saf flicked a nipple with his tongue.

Chuckling at the sounds he could make her produce, he flicked the other nipple with his tongue and lowered her onto her back again. Her eyes closed and her chest shook in his mouth.

“Can you trust me?” Saf rested his jaw gently between her breasts, nuzzling against her right one as if it were a pillow. “After everything?”

Her eyes fluttered open and she tilted so she could look directly at him. “I was afraid you'd never trust me. I want to trust you, Saf. Tell me I can.”

He kissed her, his tongue finding hers quickly. “I trust you, and you can trust me.” His hand then found the top of her dress, and tugged on it. She instinctively lifted her hips so he could slide the dress the rest of the way off. Hastily folding it, Saf tucked it behind them; out of the way. He never once took his eyes off Sparks. It was hard to take her in with the light so dim, but the braziers were still lit, and it was enough to cast a glow against her silhouette. She was far smaller than she seemed while running around as a boy in her slacks and hood; smaller than the billowing dresses implied. She seemed fragile, and he took care to not break her.

“Are you disappointed?” Sparks clenched her knees together and folded in on herself. She refused to look at him as Saf shook his head.

“There is no way I'd be disappointed.” Saf's hands snaked their way up the outside of her legs, then rested on her hips. Wiggling a knee between her ankles, he coaxed her legs to part, stopping whenever she resisted him, but advancing forward as she relented. Wedged between her knees, Saf leaned forward and placed a quick peck on Sparks's left hip bone, then the right. Then he pressed his lips to her navel, circling her stomach with feather-light touches that made her shiver.

“Saf. Please.” The blankets on the floor wrinkled within her grasp, and a whimper slipped from her throat.

Grinning up at her, he kissed below her navel. Then further down. Then further down. Then he kissed where her right thigh met her hip. Then he kissed the left side. She smelled amazing, and it pleased him that there was nothing royal about her scent. It was raw and animalistic, just like anyone else's.

 _That's right_ , he reminded himself, _that's because this is my Sparks._

She moaned some more, soft, cracked whimpers. Her thighs twitched against his hands and Sparks planted her feet to re-angle herself for him. Saf couldn't resist any longer. He needed her, as badly as she needed him in that instant. Perhaps even more-so.

He stripped out of his pants and knelt before her. Gathering up her hips in his hands, he pressed himself against her, the heat of their crotches calling to each other. He crashed his lips down on hers, careful to not penetrate her quite yet. She rocked her hips, beckoning him as her tongue reached for his, her fingers racing through his hair.

He pulled back. “I hear this hurts at first.”

“I don't care.”

“I've wanted this for far longer than I'd care to admit.”

“Me too.” She whimpered again as she tried to wiggle out of Saf's hands and onto his crotch.

That was all he needed, although it kept every ounce of willpower to not drive himself into her. He had hurt her too much already. He wasn't going to fracture his Sparks again. No more pain. What they were doing couldn't involve any pain.

He held her still so her eagerness, her hunger, wouldn't spoil his goal. Slowly, he pushed herself into her. He felt her stretch to welcome him, and press to fill any space between them. He gasped at the sensation, and at the realization that this was real.

 _Slow,_ he ordered himself, _don't hurt her anymore._

Sparks squeaked and arched her back. Her hands flung to his shoulders and pressed his chest onto hers. He kissed her neck and whispered “let me do this” into her ear. She submitted and squeaked out another moan. Every time he pushed himself slightly further into her she mewed, and his heart pounded harder.

Fully inside her, he asked if he hurt her. She panted and shook her head, grinding her wanting hips against his. She pulsated around him, shooting electricity through him. Brushing some of her hair away from her temple with his thumb, he kissed it and thrust into her for the first time.

Another mew. Another squeaked moan. Another bit of panting.

“Sapphire.”

Hearing her call out his name in those pathetic gasps made him feel so weak and so powerful. He needed to hear her shaking voice more. Saf tilted her hips so it would be easier for her to take him fully, and he thrust again, a groan escaping his lips that time.

Sparks wrapped her legs around his waist, locking her ankles together against his back, not letting him leave her as he thrust his hips once more. It was a bit clumsy at first, but she found his rhythm and started rocking her hips in time with him. Their breathing quickened as Sparks's moans grew louder. To try to muffle her, Saf kissed her with every feeling he had in that moment.

His passion. His desire. His hope. His care. His need. His love.

She mewed into his mouth. Her nails started digging pleasantly into his shoulders. Her chest heaved against his, and her hips rocked faster; begging him to quicken his pace as well. He complied, gladly. His fingers intertwined with the last remnants of her spilt braids.

Their breaths became too labored to continue kissing. Saf buried his head into Sparks's shoulder as he panted, groaning with lust every few thrusts. Sparks kept her eyes closed, focusing on the sensations he was shooting through her. He shifted his angle slightly, and made sure to grind against her clit. This was Saf's time to take her mind off of everything, and he wanted to use that time to the fullest.

“Sparks,” he moaned. “My sweet Sparks.”

She cried out in response, then instantly bit her lip to muffle another scream. Instead, she moaned and buried her face into his chest. As she gasped for her next breath the word “more” burst from her lips.

Saf's right hand stayed tangled within Sparks's hair as his left moved to her hip, holding it where he needed. He rolled his hips as he continued to pound against her, the slaps of wet skin smacking into each other echoing throughout the tiny room as Sparks whimpered with each push.

“No one can hear you but me,” Saf panted. He ran his right hand down her jaw until she stared up at him with those gorgeous gray eyes. They fluttered closed with each thrust, but she held his gaze best she could. “I want to hear you.” Saf ran his thumb across her lips, and she gently bit it as another moan erupted from her. “Let me her you.”

Saf felt the last of her tension leave her chest and her hips. She was fully giving herself to him as she cried out, a sweet, high pitched, breathy yip. Both of their breaths strained as each of her cries went up a note, and each of his groans became more graveled; more animalistic.

“Saf.” Sparks could barely speak anymore between gasping shrieks. “Please. Pl-”

He pulled her into a deep kiss, and wrapped his tongue around hers, hungrily. As he did, Saf felt Sparks shudder beneath him, her nails driving into his shoulders, her legs clamping around his waist, her ankles twitching as her toes curled. He felt her tighten around him in spasms, and it was too much for him to bear.

His left hand latched onto her hip, holding her still as he quaked inside her. His tongue hungrily wrestled hers. He pressed them as close together as he possibly could without literally melting into her. She squeaked into his mouth, and he was about ready to orgasm a second time at the noise.

Breathless, they parted and gasped to fill their lungs.

“Saf- Sapphire,” Sparks panted. “That-”

He pecked her on the lips and smiled. “I-” His lungs burned for air, but he needed to tell her. “I didn't- didn't think I- I could be-”

It was her turn to silence him with a kiss. “I've missed you.” Her chest heaved as she struggled to catch her breath. “I didn't want Sparks to die.”

“Me neither.” Saf kissed each of her eye lids, and then rested his forehead against hers. They stayed like that a few more seconds as he softened inside her. He delicately pulled away, his forehead never leaving hers. “Are you alright? Does it hurt?”

“What we did is the farthest thing from pain I have ever experienced.” Sparks rested her hand on his cheek and stroked just beside his non-matching purple eyes with her thumb. Saf leaned into her touch.

“You're crying again.” Her voice was evening out as she teased him. Her thumb slid beneath his eye to wipe the stray tear away.

“How can I not when my heart is healed and torn apart at the same time?”

“Let's not speak of broken hearts. I wish to enjoy what just happened.”

Saf settled beside his Sparks and rested her head on his chest. Holding her fragile body close to his, he kissed the top of her head. Her body heat washed over him, and he breathed her in. He didn't want them to drift to sleep because he didn't want the moment to end between them. Things were perfect; her arms around him, and his around her.

Things would not be perfect forever, but, to make things right, Saf was willing to do whatever his queen asked of him. Whatever Bitterblue asked of him. Especially whatever his Sparks asked of him. For his heart only wished to keep her safe and happy.

**Author's Note:**

> Man, I also ship Bitterblue with Giddon, but I desperately wanted these two star-crossed lovers to have a happier ending than they did. I could give them this at least. I could show how almost painfully gentle he was with her during that night.
> 
> I hope I did right by these two characters.


End file.
